Why I Will Never Use Taxi, Limo & Rideshare.
As you get used to rideshare driving, you are going to encounter all types of unexpected situations due to strangers you meet having different upbringing, education, parenting, moods, circumstances and etc. Unless you are a complete pushover without any emotion and self-respect, you are going to get irritated or frustrated by many passengers. This is why I'm picky with who I take in my car regardless of what rideshare companies want. On top of that, there is another huge reason why I'm very picky with passengers I take.
And because I know what can happen while driving on rideshare platforms, I would rather take the public transit over taxi, limo, ridesharing if I have a choice. There is only one main reason for that: I'm 99.9% sure that previous passengers vomitted in the car at least multiple times. As a rideshare driver, If you blindly accept every trip request and let random strangers in your car, you will not avoid somebody from vomiting during the trip. It's inevitable. Especially, if you take passengers from bars, clubs, strip clubs, restaurants and casinos, there is a higher possibility that you will be dealing with drunk passengers.
I never thought picking up somebody from a restaurant would result in selling my car. Luckily, that car was almost at the end of service mileage. I guess I should've known better. I should've locked the doors and canceled the request as soon as I noticed this woman stumbling a little bit. Because I was far away from where I needed to be, I figured I would make my gas money back by taking this couple to their home.
It happened in the middle of the trip while I was driving. I heard the sound of vomiting non-stop for awhile. When I got to a stop light, I looked back to see the damage. The woman started to vomit some more for awhile on her boyfriend. As Justin Timberlake's Cry Me a River was playing on the radio in the background, I saw a river of vomit in the back of my car while vomit liquids and solid chunks still dripping down like a waterfall from her boyfriend to the floor.
I froze for a few seconds. I was horrified. I have never seen anything like that in my life. I just kept driving until the drop off point. I wanted to cuss the f**k out but I decided not to flip out on her boyfriend. I felt really bad and sad by looking at her boyfriend's sweater and pants completely covered and soaked in vomit. As I watched their hands covered in vomit holding each other, I said, "Wow, it must be true love. I hope it lasts forever." I will never know what she ate that day, but it had to be an international buffet if I had to guess. Definitely noodles were on the menu.
When I reported this incident, I received around $100 from the company as a fee. That money was not enough for my loss. Plus, the bigger problem was no car wash wanted to clean my car professionally due to this river of vomit. It was biohazard they said. I had no choice but to clean it myself. I basically wore a homemade ghetto hazmat suit with swimning goggle, mask and two rubber gloves on. Unfortunately, this car being my first rideshare car and still somewhat being new to the industry, I didn't have a seatcover. By the time I tried to clean up my car, this vomit was already soaked in deep to the cloth fabric of backseat and floor covers.
The smell of vomit was foul and it didn't go away for days. I had to open my windows down and smoke cigarettes while I was driving in order to fight against the lingering smell. I pretty much dumped the whole bottle of disinfectant on my backseat and scrubbed the sh!t out of it. I really did my best to clean up that car because it was mine and I still had to drive it. No matter what I did and how hard I tried, I wasn't able to clean it up completely to my satisfaction. There were crevices and cracks that were impossible to penetrate or reach unless ripping the car apart piece by piece. To be brutally honest, I saw leftover vomit chunks in those crevices and cracks.
Did I drive people in that same backseat after this extravagant vomit incident? Yes. I wanted to get rid of the car immediately, but I needed more money to buy a new car. Also, it wasn't a quick and easy process to locate the car I wanted for the right price while finding a buyer for my old car. When I finally got my brand new car, the first thing I bought was a backseat cover plus rubber floor mats. Was that the last time I had to deal with vomit? No.
As I mentioned earlier, if you take all passengers from places that serve alcohols, it is inevitable that you will have to deal with vomiting. And because prime time to make money on rideshare platforms were usually when people were going home at night from events or functions, I had to take countless passengers from bars and clubs. After the first vomit incident, I accepted the fact that it was what it was. If someone vomits in my car, clean and wash my backseat cover in a machine.
It happened again one night while I was driving my 2nd rideshare vehicle. This time, it changed everything for me as far as taking passengers from places that serve alcohols. This event ultimately led me to never take drunk passengers in my car no matter what.
I received a request from a known popular university campus bar near closing time. Two female athlete students entered my car. We were on the way back to their dorms and one girl started to vomit. It was not as bad as the one that I wrote about earlier. I'm not a vomit expert, but this one was not on the top out of vomit family tree in my opinion. It was mostly vomit liquids and some solid chunks. Just like in the past, I reported this incident to the company. I uploaded pictures of vomit and waited for the response.
"Based on pictures you provided, our team has determined that this is a class level 2 vomit. And for that reason, you will receive $30 as a cleaning fee."
I asked how they determined these levels of vomit. I asked if it was determined based on the volume or the content of vomit. I asked if colors and textures of vomit mattered. No reply. I guess due to neverending vomit incidents on the platform, they found another creative way to nickle and dime to screw drivers over. Maybe this is the reason why I see way too many rideshare drivers waiting by all-you-can-eat buffet restaurants in the Chinatown to maximize their vomit fee payout. I don't know. Ever since then, I have reduced about 95% of drunk passengers in my car by using my 6th sense plus experiences. You gotta wonder what kind of assholes came up with this bullsh!t during the office meeting.
If I'm in a situation where I need to request a car to go somewhere, it definitely won't be a taxi for sure. And if I have to go with rideshare, it won't just be any car and any driver with the cheapest price. I'm going to make sure I'm going with a driver who looks so fresh and so clean with style and grace.
The total number of passengers vomiting in a car heavily depends of the rideshare driver. I don't know my exact number, but I had less than 10 vomit incidents. Every driver is different as far as how they go about working on rideshare platforms. I asked another rideshare driver one night while I was driving him home from the airport. We were both talking about our strategies on rideshare platforms. Once I found out that he hardly ever declined or canceled requests from passengers, I had to ask him immediately.
"How many times did people puke in your car?"
He told me that it happened more than 60 times in his car. I couldn't believe it, but there was no reason for him to lie to me. The crazy thing about it is that his total trip count doesn't even come close to mine. If I remember correctly, his count was maybe around 1K or 2K at that time. Imagine that!